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<h2><a name="SECTION0020210000000000000000">
18.2.1 Introduction</a>
</h2>
<a name="cgi-intro"></a>
<p>
A CGI script is invoked by an HTTP server, usually to process user
input submitted through an HTML <code>&lt;FORM&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;ISINDEX&gt;</code> element.

<p>
Most often, CGI scripts live in the server's special <span class="file">cgi-bin</span>
directory.  The HTTP server places all sorts of information about the
request (such as the client's hostname, the requested URL, the query
string, and lots of other goodies) in the script's shell environment,
executes the script, and sends the script's output back to the client.

<p>
The script's input is connected to the client too, and sometimes the
form data is read this way; at other times the form data is passed via
the ``query string'' part of the URL.  This module is intended
to take care of the different cases and provide a simpler interface to
the Python script.  It also provides a number of utilities that help
in debugging scripts, and the latest addition is support for file
uploads from a form (if your browser supports it).

<p>
The output of a CGI script should consist of two sections, separated
by a blank line.  The first section contains a number of headers,
telling the client what kind of data is following.  Python code to
generate a minimal header section looks like this:

<p>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
print "Content-Type: text/html"     # HTML is following
print                               # blank line, end of headers
</pre></div>

<p>
The second section is usually HTML, which allows the client software
to display nicely formatted text with header, in-line images, etc.
Here's Python code that prints a simple piece of HTML:

<p>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
print "&lt;TITLE&gt;CGI script output&lt;/TITLE&gt;"
print "&lt;H1&gt;This is my first CGI script&lt;/H1&gt;"
print "Hello, world!"
</pre></div>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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